If You're Thinking of Living In/Cobble Hill; A Landmark Area With a Family Bent

By AARON DONOVAN

Published: May 6, 2001

THE name conjures up images of peaceful 19th-century residential streets, which in many ways are still present. But the only cobblestones near the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn -- one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in the borough -- can be found in a largely industrial area just west of the neighborhood on a street named Tiffany Place.

The neighborhood was given its name in the 1950's by a real estate agent who sought to increase the market potential of the brownstone-lined streets, which were then included in a larger area known as South Brooklyn. ''Somebody ran across an old map of New York in which this area was called Cobleshill,'' said Dennis Holt, a senior editor of The Brooklyn Heights Press and Cobble Hill News, who recently wrote a series of articles about life in Cobble Hill during the 1880's. ''Everyone has forgotten who that person was.''

The Dutch name for the area, Cobleshill, referred to a hill centered around the area where Court Street meets Atlantic Avenue. The hill was leveled during the Revolutionary War by the British, who wanted to keep George Washington, who had occupied the hill with his troops in the summer of 1776 during the Battle of Long Island, from having a strategic vantage point over their headquarters in Brooklyn Heights.

Major development began in 1836 with ferry service between the Battery and the foot of Atlantic Avenue. It started at the waterfront and spread inland as a street grid was planned. Eventually, the most desirable houses were along the main north-south routes: Hicks, Clinton and Court Streets. ''You can see a dropoff in the quality of architecture the closer you get to the water,'' Mr. Holt said. ''Those that survived were working-class houses for people who worked on the waterfront or in factories.'' The waterfront now is industrial and inaccessible.

For much of its history, Cobble Hill has existed in the shadow of Brooklyn's premier residential neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights, just north of Cobble Hill across Atlantic Avenue. But real estate agents say that in recent years Cobble Hill's attractiveness has increased.

''Gradually, people who were aiming at Brooklyn Heights felt they got a better value in Cobble Hill and discovered there were many reasons to prefer Cobble Hill,'' said Christopher Thomas, senior vice president in the William B. May Company's Brookyn Heights office.

Until three or four years ago, housing prices in Cobble Hill tended to be 10 to 15 percent less than in the Heights, he said, but recently the disparity has shrunk.

Rents and prices for co-ops and town houses have gone up steadily for years as the neighborhood has come into its own but have largely leveled out in the last year or so. Prices for a town house range from $2 million for a large building in mint condition at a prime location to $1 million for a fixer-upper. Often the town houses are broken up into several co-op units that usually run about $800,000 to $900,000 for a duplex and $400,000 to $500,000 for a two-bedroom, floor-through apartment.

Because most of the neighborhood is within Brooklyn's second-oldest landmark district (after the Brooklyn Heights district) and because the neighborhood is also subject to a 50-foot height ceiling, it has retained a 19th-century feel. Most buildings in the neighborhood are four-story brownstone or brick town houses built more than a century ago. Often the owners will take the top three floors of a town house and rent out a ground-floor garden apartment or will take a bottom duplex apartment and rent out two floor-through apartments above.

New construction or alterations to existing buildings within the historic district must be approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. ''We're one of the few limited height districts in the city,'' said Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association, a neighborhood civic group. ''It's been a very powerful protection for our community.''

The association has worked to improve the area's parks, fight the Long Island College Hospital's plan for a high-rise tower and create the Cobble Hill Tree Fund, which has planted trees throughout the neighborhood, Mr. Sloane said. ''We've been trying to create one of New York's premier urban family neighborhoods.''

The family-oriented nature of Cobble Hill can be seen on Court Street, where on weekdays mothers push strollers as they walk from one shop to another. Among the attractions for families with young children is Families First Inc. on Baltic Street, a nonprofit organization that offers workshops for new parents on a range of topics, including C.P.R., discipline and nursery school.

Cobble Hill Park is a half-acre park at the center of the neighborhood. On a warm spring weekend the park is filled with young couples sipping iced or hot coffees purchased at a nearby upscale deli simply called Delicatessen. The park is bordered by four- and five-story buildings that line Congress Street and three-story buildings along Verandah Place, a blocklong alley that once housed servants who worked in larger houses in the area.